Material separator and improved material supporting and guide means therefor



Aug. 27, 1957 w. H. NEWTON 2,804,207

MATERIAL SEPARATOR AND IMPROVED MATERIAL SUPPORTING AND GUIDE MEANS THEREFOR Filed Aug. 10, 1953 INVENTOR; WILUAM H.NE\IVTON HTZ Y MATERIAL SEPARATOR AND IMPROVED MATERIAL SUPPORTBNG AND GUIDE MEANS THEREFOR William H. Newton, Blacklick, Ohio, assignor to T he Jeffrey Manufacturing Company, a corporation of Ohio Application August 10, 1953, Serial No. 373,400

2 Claims. (Cl. 209-223) This invention relates to magnetic material separators wherein materials undergoing separating treatment are caused to flow, pass or travel through an elongated passageway formed in part by the magnetic materials carrier of the separator and in part by a material supporting and guiding means such, for example, as a feed plate or chute therebelow.

One object of the invention is to provide an improved magnetic separator of the type above set forth.

Another object of the invention is to provide an improved separator of the type above set forth including an improved means for supporting and guiding the material undergoing treatment.

Another object of the invention is to provide an improved means per se for supporting and guiding materials in their travel adjacent a magnetic materials carrier of a magnetic separator.

- Another object of the invention is to provide an improved magnetic separator including improved means for supporting and guiding materials during their travel adjacent the magnetic material carrier of the separator, or the supporting and guiding means per se, which causes the material to follow a sinuous or undulating path and which traps or pockets some of the material being treated whereby wear caused by abrasion on the supporting and guiding means is reduced to a minimum.

Still another and important object of the invention is to provide an improved magnetic separator including improved means, or the means per se, for causing the materials undergoing treatment to be kept or placed, more or less, in suspension as by turbulent motion, thereby to reduce the entrapment of non-magnetic materials in th magnetic materials, and vice versa.

Other objects of the invention will appear hereinafter, the novel features and combinaitons being set forth in the appended claims.

The accompanying drawing is a sectional elevational view of a magnetic separator embodying the invention which, except for certain features of construction hereinafter described, is disclosed in detail in my Patent No. 2,607,478, dated August 19, 1952, for a Magnetic Separator. Because the separator is disclosed in detail in said States Patent Patent No. 2,607,478, only those features of it which are I necessary to an understanding of this invention are described here.

Referring now to the drawing, the magnetic separator includes a main frame 10 upon which a tank, or box 11 is mounted. The tank or box 11 has vertical side walls, one of which is seen at 12, a front wall 13, and a back wall 14, the bottom of which walls 13 and 14 converge downwardly, leading to tailings or discharge spouts, one of which is seen at 15. One side wall 12 has an opening 16 through which water that normally fills tank 11 to the level indicated in the drawing, may flow over a controllable height weir, not shown, to be discharged from the separator. Theheight of the water in the tank or box 11 may be adjusted by adjusting the weir.

Mounted in bearings carried by the main frame 10 is ice a drum assembly 17 which is driven in the direction of the arrow seen in the drawing by a motor and drive gearing, not shown. Drum assembly 17 includes a stationary shaft 18 to which a magnet assembly 19, including a plurality of radially extending magnets is attached through a bracket 20 by which the position of the magnet assembly 19 may be adjusted about the axis of shaft 18. As is obvious from the drawing, the drum assembly 17 is mounted on a transverse horizontal axis and the bottom thereof extends downwardly into the tank or box 11 and it submerges appreciably below the normal water level therein as it rotates.

The primary function of this magnetic separator is to separate magnetic constituents from non-magnetic constituents which are fed thereto as a mixture in which the particles are relatively fine. Many such mixtures that may be treated or separated in such magnetic separators are well known to those skilled in the art. Various ores, and coal mixed with magnetic materials, form examples of such mixtures.

Adjacent the right-hand side the separator is provided with a feed box 21 which may be supplied with water from a source not shown. Cooperating with and fed from the feed box 21 is a material supporting and guide means .in the form of a feed plate 22 positioned in the tank 11 so as to receive material as it is discharged from said box 21. Feed plate 22 extends in an are near to but spaced from the peripheral surface of the non-magnetic drum or magnetic material carrier 23, to which magnetic materials are attracted by the magnetic fields of magnet assembly 19, to cooperate therewith to form an elongated passageway 24 through which materials must pass or travel while undergoing separating treatment. The construction of feed plate 22 and its cooperation with the magnetic materials carrier 23 as well as the action which it imparts to materials passing thereover constitute important features of this invention now to be described.

Feed plate 22 extends laterally essentially the entire width of the tank 11 and it is mounted to the opposite side walls 12 thereof by a plurality of bolts 25 that extend through its upright flat generally arcuate end members or walls 26 and the walls 12. Plate 22 preferably extends above and below the normal level of the water in tank 11 and through an are which is less than a quadrant, the lower end of said feed plate 22 terminating adjacent the lowermost portion of the magnetic materials carrier 23 or, in other Words, at a vertical plane extending through the drum 23 closely adjacent the axis of rotation thereof. Feed plate 22 is formed or built up of a number of elements including the spaced upright arcuate end wall elements 26, an arcuate bottom plate member 27 welded to the end wall elements 26 and a plurality of baffle, dam or weir elements 28 which extend transversely of the bottom plate 27 between the end Wall elements 26 and are welded to both the bottom plate 27 and the walls 26.

It is important to note that these bafile plates or dams 28 cooperate with the bottom plate 27 to form pockets or traps that extend transversely of both the magnetic materials carrying drum or element 23 and the bottom of plate 27. The entire feed plate 22 is formed of nonmagnetic material and it is desirable that its baflle plates 28 carry renewable Wear resisting liner elements 29, preferably formed of resilient material such as rubber or the like, which Will protect the bafile plates 28 and particularly the top portions thereof which are adjacent the drum or carrier 23 from the abrasive Wear of material passing thereover. Baffle plates 28, as shown in the drawing, may be said to extend upwardly and substantially perpendicularly with respect to the plate 27 and toward the drum or carrier 23 although actually each baflle plate 28 lies upon a radius of the plate 27 struck from the axis of rotation of the drum assembly 17. The positions and Ill? number of bafiles 28 may to provide flexible transverse edge portions of the dam or weir means adjacent the drum or carrier 23.

22 where they begin their travel through the elongated passageway 24. It will be seen that the pockets or traps in the feed plate 22 formed by the bafile plates 28 and the bottom plate 27 will pocket or trap limited quantities of thismaterial as it travels through the passageway 24 and that this trapped material will in efiect become a part of a liner for the battle plates 28 and portions of the bottom plate 27 which will be subject to constant replace ment and to a large portion or" the abrasive wear caused by materials moving thereover. It will also be seen that the height and spacing of the bafiles or dams; formed by the elements 28 and 29, with respect to each other is such that they will cause the material trapped or pocketed behind them to form steps in the bottom of the elongated passageway 24 down which other materials will flow and that these other materials after they spill over the crests of the dams will fall directly on the material impounded behind the next lower dams. The trapped materials cooperate with the feed plate 22 to create a sinuous or undulating path which the materials being treated follow when passing through the passageway 24 and when these materials fiow over these dams or weirs they are directed toward the drum or carrier 23 and agitated and otherwise and the action which any one of them is to have on the material at any given position above the plate 22.

As seen in the drawing, the two uppermost bafiies 23 at the right-hand side of plate 22 are spaced more closely together than the remaining baffles 28. This spacing is for the purpose of retarding the velocity of materials moving in passageway 24 while they are traveling over the steeper first portion of plate 22. Materials after passing over these first two bafile plates 28 are directed to pass through a strong magnetic field between two adjacent oles of magnet assembly 19 by the next lower baifie 28 i which provides a relatively shallow or thin opening in the passageway 24 adjacent the carrier 23. By causing all of the materials to pass through this strong magnetic field, much of the magnetic materials will there be removed from the non-magnetic materials, thereby leaving the remaining material flowing over the plate 22 relatively low percentagewise in magnetic constituents. The next lower bafile 28 is positioned to direct the materials toward the carrier 23 where the magnetic field is relatively weak, namely, adjacent the center of the next lower magnet pole, thereby utilizing the full strength of the magnetic flux throughout the remaining portion of the passageway 24 that is above plate 22 to the greatest advantage. The last or lowermost bafile 28 of plate 22 is positioned in. a relatively strong portion of a magnetic field in order that any magnetic particles in the non-magnetic materials flowing from the plate 22 will be removed.

The heights of the baffles 28, or as shown in the drawings, the heights of the liners 29 thereof may be varied so that the spaces between their uppermost edges and the magnetic material carrier may be adjusted as desired. Under certain circumstances it may be desirable to cause the liners 29 to project upwardly beyond the upper edges of the batile plates 28 not only to control the height of the passageway 24 thereabove, but also to control the quantity or depth of thematerial trapped thereby and When the separator is in operation, all magnetic materials will be attracted to the drum or carrier 23, which is rotating in the directionrof the arrow seen in the drawing, by the'magnetic fields of the magnet assembly 19. This, of course, is a primary and partial separation of the non-magnetic material from the magnetic material.

Separated non-magnetic material passes over the lowermost baffie plate 28' of feed plate 22 and sinks to the bottom of the tank 11 from which it can be removed through the discharge spigots 15.

The magnetic materials product of this primary separationtogetherwith some fine non-magnetic materials held or caught therein are further treated as the drum or carrier rotates to carry them toward the magnetic materials discharge chute 33. In this second treating stage'or operation some non-magnetic materials will be removed through an upward current classifier 31 and some will be'fed to the tank or box 11 over a sloping plate 32, all as described in my Patent No. 2,607,478 above identified. It will, of course, be seen that because of the action which occurs in the primary separation only small portions of non-magnetic materials will be present in the materials being treated in the second treating stage.

From the foregoing it will be apparent that I have pro vided an improved separator including an improved feed plate or material supporting and guide means that is adapted to cooperate with a magnetic materials carrier to provide an elongated path through which materials undergoing treatment must pass and in which limited quantities or portions of the material being treated are trapped or pocketed to form protective wearing surfaces for and steps in the plate means which are subject to constant and automatic replacement. It will also be seen that in passing over this plate or material supporting and guide means the material being treated is caused positively to follow a sinuous or undulating path wherein its proximity to the surface of the magnetic materials carrier may be varied thereby to subject the material at all times to the strongest or most desirable strength of the magnetic fields which separate the magnetic materials from the nonmagnetic materials by attracting the magnetic materials tothe magnetic material carrier, and that the materials While traveling over the plate 22 are mixed, stirred or otherwise agitated by the turbulent motion imparted to them whereby they are maintained in a dispersed condition in the water that flows with them, thereby reducing the quantity of non-magnetic materials that otherwise would be entrapped in the magnetic materials.

. Obviously those skilled in the art may make various changes in the details and arrangement of parts without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the claims hereto appended, and applicant therefore wishes not to be restricted to the precise construction herein disclosed.

Having thus described and shown an embodiment of the invention, what it is .desired to secure by Letters Patent of the. United States is:

1. Ina magnetic separator including a non-magnetic tank adapted to hold fluid,means forming a drum to which magnetic materials are attracted and conveyed, means mounting said drum to rotate on a generally horizontal axis and to extend into the fluid in said tank, a non-magnetic plate means in said tank adjacent said drum cooperating therewith to form an elongated passageway through which materials must pass while under,- goingtreatment, non-magnetic baffle means on said plate extending generally perpendicularly thereto and toward said drum over which materials must pass while traveling through said elongated passageway, andwear resistant non-magnetic facing means associated with said baflle means, said baflle means cooperating with said plate to provide pocketsflfor holding materials thereby reducing Wear on said plate and baflile means and for causing materials undergoing treatment to follow an undulated path whereby turbulent motion is imparted to said materials.

2. In a magnetic separator including a non-magnetic tank adapted to hold fluid, means forming a carrier adapted to submerge in the fluid in said tank and to which magnetic materials are attracted and conveyed, a non-magnetic plate means in said tank adjacent said carrier cooperating therewith to form an elongated passageway through which materials must pass while undergoing treatment, non-magnetic bafiie means on said plate extending generally perpendicularly thereto and toward said carrier over which materials must pass while traveling through said elongated passageway, and wear resistant non-magnetic facing means associated'with said bafile means, said bafiie means cooperating with said plate to provide pockets for holding materials thereby reducing Wear on said plate and baffle means and for causing materials undergoing treatment to follow an undulated path whereby turbulent motion is imparted to said materials.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 939,523 Ludwick Nov. 9, 1909 1,141,833 Salwen June 1, 1915 1,146,141 Dutton July 13, 1915 2,003,430 Crockett June 4, 1935 2,326,575 Stearns Aug. 10, 1943 2,607,478 Newton Aug. 19, 1952 2,678,729 Spodig May 18, 1954 2,696,301 Mojden Dec. 7, 1954 FOREIGN PATENTS 37,040 Sweden Aug. 31, 1912 

